Fleshworld / Gazers / Viscera/// – 3-way Split

This CD-release of three bands from Unquiet Records starts with Polish Fleshworld’s three songs of raw Post-Metal. The sounds are not the best possible, but fit the crude approach the band has taken, with guitars having quite a lot of soft buzzing and cold distortion in both the rhythm and the lead guitars, with some more jingling high guitars bringing a beautiful melancholic feeling to the music. The vocals are also quite raw, almost Black Metal-like screaming, but I would still place them in the Hardcore realm. The Polish (although partly English) vocals bring some exotic colours to the sound of the band. The bass is hard and pounding, fitting the soundscapes well. The drum-beats change form nicely in the songs, with the drummer handling the (mostly) mid-tempo jamming skilfully. The three songs are quite similar in nature, with the flavour of the whole band getting better the more I listen to their part of this split advancing. This music brings to my mind visions of a nightly autumn city.

The second band Gazers from France deliver a quite similar style of Post-Metal, with a bit more technical (but not necessarily any more complex) and industrialised approach (although very organic nevertheless), with straight-up Electronic and Ambient parts between the Metalic parts of the music (which definitely dominate the music) . The vocals are definitely more Hardcore-influenced, while the music is perhaps a bit slower in pace. The sound is weirdly murky and clear at the same time, but by no means worse than on the Fleshworld-songs, which make them a very fitting follow-up to the first third of this album. All in all a very similar style of music compared to Fleshworld, so in that sense a solid release so far.

The third band Viscera/// from Italy changes the style a bit to a more melodic direction as well as adding clear vocals (at first at least), which don’t work in my opinion in the music as well as the Black Metalic screams also used by the band. The second song (a cover of the 80’ies synth-pop band Yazoo) features more Black Metal influences in form of blast-beats as well. The guitars are brought forth in the mix a lot more than the vox and the drums, adding to the heaviness of this otherwise quite melodic and high repertoire of some sort of psychedelic and 70’ies-influenced Post-Metal and Hardcore riffs. Viscera/// is the most unique of the three bands, but it’s a question of taste if they are the best.

This three-way-split functions as a good introduction to the future music of these three bands, but as not the greatest fan or expert on things Post-Metal, it’s hard to analyze this album any better. I do have a feeling all of the three bands work well on album and as a live-experience to the fans of the genre. I give my points not from a subjective perspective (coming through the filters of my personal musical tastes) but from a more objective angle when thinking of the music genre of these bands in general.